what is the difference between Madison HS, Oakton, and Reston high schools?

[Anonymous]

At an IB high school, are you required to take an IB class? or theoretically don't ever need to take one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At an IB high school, are you required to take an IB class? or theoretically don't ever need to take one?

Depends. Some IB schools automatically enroll kids in IB English unless they are ESOL. Otherwise kids don’t have to take any IB courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At an IB high school, are you required to take an IB class? or theoretically don't ever need to take one?

You don't have to take any at all. In fact, most don't. Which makes some DCUM people mad for some reason.

You also don't have to take the full diploma program. You can take just some IB courses and the rest non-IB if you like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At an IB high school, are you required to take an IB class? or theoretically don't ever need to take one?

You don't have to take any at all. In fact, most don't. Which makes some DCUM people mad for some reason.

You also don't have to take the full diploma program. You can take just some IB courses and the rest non-IB if you like.

There are at least two IB high schools where IB English is the only English course taught in person to 11th and 12th graders who aren’t ESOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At an IB high school, are you required to take an IB class? or theoretically don't ever need to take one?

You don't have to take any at all. In fact, most don't. Which makes some DCUM people mad for some reason.

You also don't have to take the full diploma program. You can take just some IB courses and the rest non-IB if you like.

There are at least two IB high schools where IB English is the only English course taught in person to 11th and 12th graders who aren’t ESOL.

Yes Marshall is one.

[Anonymous]

does fairfax county ever post where kids go to college after high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:does fairfax county ever post where kids go to college after high school?

The schools post a general list of colleges but not with student names attached. Lots of it on the annual instagram college decisions pages though.

[Anonymous]

I taught at South Lakes for several years. There are several excellent programs - fine and performing arts, marketing/DECA, culinary arts, geospatial and others. Every high school is going to have its cliques, but having also taught at another school more similar to the others you're asking about, I find that it's "safer to be different" at SL, if that makes any sense.

Your child does not need to take any IB classes, or can pick and choose certain content areas. There are even IB arts courses available. One of the challenges of IB schools is how the course progression works for some of the core subject areas, particularly math, and how it causes some segregation. For instance, if your child takes regular Algebra 2 as opposed to honors, you may find yourself battling to let them progress into precalculus, much less any IB math class. Rather, they may find themselves funneled into a more "auxiliary" math class like Prob/Stat, which if your child is 4-year college bound, makes them look a little less competitive against peers from nearby schools. If you peek into the various math classrooms, you can look at the demographics and probably guess what level is being taught in there.

That said, I've had hundreds of students both on and off the STEM track who have gone on to flourishing careers. The school is highly community-oriented and aims to be student friendly. Many of the staff attended the school themselves - more than at any other school I've worked. It may not get the best GreatSchools rating, and yes, your child will attend the same building as students from rougher neighborhoods (gasp!), but as far as public schools go it's a good place for kids to find their path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: It may not get the best GreatSchools rating, and yes, your child will attend the same building as students from rougher neighborhoods (gasp!), but as far as public schools go it's a good place for kids to find their path.

Right before Spring Break my son complained about constant fighting at SLHS - every single day for a protracted period - including fights that resulted in hospitalization, and I was shocked but not particularly surprised that the administration was completely useless about putting a stop to it. I doubt any of the instigators were suspended or expelled as they should have been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a big difference between the IB program at Marshall vs. South Lakes? Do they have a different concentration or reputation?

Reputation wise, along with Robinson, they are the best IB schools in FCPS in terms of reputation and IB diploma performance.

They all have the same IB courses.

Most students only take some IB classes and few do actual full diploma- if want actual # of students, someone posted once on DCuM to a FCPS school board link so if you search for it can find- the schools usually just show how many kids take 1 or more IB classes as those numbers are higher. For full diploma, school board docs showed very few do.

The number of IB diplomas earned at Marshall last year was over 100 - so about 20% of the senior class. Not a small number. I’m not sure how it compares to other FCPS schools.

Madison and Robinson are the two schools that have a decent number of IB Diploma grads. South Lakes has around 50, so 10% of the class.

The purpose of the IB program is supposed to be earning the Diploma, not just taking an IB class or two. The HL classes are the ones accepted by universities and the fact that there are IB programs in FCPS that do not have enough students interested in the HL classes in areas like Science and Math hurts the kids at those schools. SLHS is a good school with a good number of happy students. The kids we know who are interested in STEM, pupil place out to AP HS or attend TJ. That doesn't mean every student does but if you have a child interested in Calculus, you probably want them at a school that teaches AP Calculus AB or BC in person and not forced to take it online or take an IB Math class that is not focused on Calculus. If you want to take Physics that is Calculus based, you need to attend an AP school because IB Physics HL is algebra based and not calculus based. The arts program is great. Plenty of kids have excellent college results out of SLHS, but the IB program as it is taught at SLHS is not a good fit for the majority of students. If it was, you would see a higher number of IB Diplomas.

I would argue that 20% completion of the IB Diploma at Madison and Robinson is not particularly great. The program is expensive and 80% of the kids are not using it for its intended purpose.

[Anonymous]

^^
PP means Marshall, not Madison, and I don’t think the IB diploma completion rate is even 20% at the more successful schools.

[Anonymous]

The program is expensive and 80% of the kids are not using it for its intended purpose.

lmao the IB diploma program is not expensive. It consists of 8 school-based teacher positions (out of ~25,000 full-time staff) and cost $3.3 million in FY25 (out of a $4bn total FCPS budget so 0.08% of the budget).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The program is expensive and 80% of the kids are not using it for its intended purpose.

lmao the IB diploma program is not expensive. It consists of 8 school-based teacher positions (out of ~25,000 full-time staff) and cost $3.3 million in FY25 (out of a $4bn total FCPS budget so 0.08% of the budget).

DP. It's more expensive than AP, and provides limited benefits while adding unnecessary complexity to FCPS, inviting pupil placements, and complicating things like boundary adjustments. If FCPS really wants to be revising boundaries every five years, they should get rid of IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The program is expensive and 80% of the kids are not using it for its intended purpose.

lmao the IB diploma program is not expensive. It consists of 8 school-based teacher positions (out of ~25,000 full-time staff) and cost $3.3 million in FY25 (out of a $4bn total FCPS budget so 0.08% of the budget).

DP. It's more expensive than AP, and provides limited benefits while adding unnecessary complexity to FCPS, inviting pupil placements, and complicating things like boundary adjustments. If FCPS really wants to be revising boundaries every five years, they should get rid of IB.

People just... say stuff.

IB is not more expensive than AP. In fact AP is more expensive than IB. There is no reason to think IB adds more complexity than AP or has more impact on boundaries than AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The program is expensive and 80% of the kids are not using it for its intended purpose.

lmao the IB diploma program is not expensive. It consists of 8 school-based teacher positions (out of ~25,000 full-time staff) and cost $3.3 million in FY25 (out of a $4bn total FCPS budget so 0.08% of the budget).

DP. It's more expensive than AP, and provides limited benefits while adding unnecessary complexity to FCPS, inviting pupil placements, and complicating things like boundary adjustments. If FCPS really wants to be revising boundaries every five years, they should get rid of IB.

Amen!